We need poems, stories and memories for a brand-new project which spans across Mansfield and Ashfield.

Residents will have the unique opportunity to work with a professional writer who will help them to shape and edit work which will be presented to the wider public in a celebration event in April 2018.

Participants can show off their creative skills and write new work which may explore questions like: How do you think the past affects the present and future in your town? How much control do you have over what happens where you live? and how might technologies such as social media bring communities together?

Writer Andrew Graves is available to facilitate a creative session or sessions, with existing groups, where the focus will be on creating new writing, which will be collated and shared. All work will be credited to the authors and each participant will be given the opportunity to read/perform their work and/or attend the final event in April. The creative session(s) can be arranged at a date best suited to the group/participants. Andrew Graves is a professional poet who regularly performs his work throughout the UK. He has appeared on TV and radio being featured on 6 Music’s Cerys Mathews Show, BBC One’s Inside Out and the documentary Evidently John Cooper Clarke. He will offer his expertise and advice in a series of FREE workshops in the area to guide new writers (and the more experienced) in creating original writing to be presented at a live event, online and through various forms of social media.

Writing East Midlands is the writer development agency for the region. We run creative writing events and projects and we develop opportunities for emerging and established. We work in partnership with a broad range of cultural organisations including schools, universities, arts venues, museums, libraries, producers and local authorities to encourage relationships between writers and their communities.

If you know of a group that would like to get involved please contact andrew.graves@rocketmail.com